kyoko was created in 2019, when i first played vanilla persona 5. i expanded her character more when i played royal in 2021.

she was born out of my desire to have a character i resonated with in the game. not as to think i was like her (we're REALLY different), but whose experiences i could relate to and i could call "my favorite character". because of persona 5's societal outcast in a japanese society theme, i wanted to explore the topic of daughters compared to sons, misogyny, how they're valued differently and how that affects little girls and women alike. kyoko is like that: she was considered the second and undesirable child next to the prodigious miracle of a son, her brother kyotaro. the aftermath is taken to the extreme though, with kyoko's frustration causing his death in an accident, but the daily life she led is a reality to many girls in the world, in which the moment she made a fatal mistake, she was abandoned by her family. (though the metaphor here is more extreme LOL)

if i had to describe her, i'd say she's a pretty flawed person, but realistic. she's two faced, cynical, and cares too much about appearances, yet is still kind, and compassionate on the inside, its just that she's been hurt, so she's pretty defensive. i wanted to make a more multidimensional female character, things that i feel are lacking in the persona series, and though some DO exist in it (i love yukari!! she's my favorite. so well written), i wasn't as insane about them as i'd like to be.

her original name was mio yamazaki (following the k in the phantom thieves' names) and instead of robin, she was dove. though it sounded too much like the deodorant, so i changed it while still keeping the bird theme. she was also from shujin and a second year! the only thing that hasn't changed is her backstory, which surprisingly i thought of before playing royal and meeting sumire, imagine my surprise... did both kasumi and kyotaro get isekaid?

her codename as a phantom thief is robin, like the bird, yet her design is inspired on an american robin because of the cowboy and wild west themes in her design. i feel like p5 was missing a cowboy... cowboys are so cool! they're the epitome of rebellion! why no cowboys, atlus!!!!!!

to sum it all up, she's all the things i wished for in a character for persona 5. though it's not my favorite persona game, and i have a canon favorite character (akechi...), i NEED a female character to be insane about in a series! she takes inspiration from all of my favorite characters, like asuka from evangelion, ena from prsk, johnny from sbr... all i wanted on a character, right in my mind. she's very special to me, so i wish to share her with the world!

to know about her lore, you can always check out my twitter, her toyhouse or just DM me on discord!

(though i will be rambling about her here, i don't wanna let go of my mutuals... sniff sniff)